After many years with another photography studio, Larry Pennington decided to set out on his own.

So in January he leased a 3,000-SF space on Main Street in downtown North Little Rock’s Argenta neighborhood and had the space renovated to suit his needs.

Now the studio has two shooting studios and Pennington employs a full-time studio coordinator/stylist, Angela Prosser, and a 23-year-old photographer, Dero Sanford, who specializes in architecture and product photography.

The first shooting studio is a 1,000-SF studio that Pennington uses for fashion shoots and large industrial product photography. The other studio is smaller and is used for portraits, food and product photography.

Pennington said he is strictly a commercial advertising photographer.

“One of my clients is a large publicly traded department store,” he said. “I shoot a lot of product and annual photos for ad agencies.”

Pennington said he shoots in all formats of conventional photography and that he often shoots products on a 4×5 view camera.

He can shoot digitally or on film.

“If I shoot film, I charge for the film and processing,” he said. “With digital, there isn’t a charge for film or processing, but I charge more per hour.”

Pennington said he doesn’t have a set fee.

“Sometimes I charge per shot and sometimes I charge by the hour or the day. It depends on what I’m doing,” he said.

Pennington is most excited about the ability to send digital images over the Internet in FTP form.

“When I shoot digital, I don’t have to put it on a Jazz disc or a CD. I can just shoot it over the Internet.”

Pennington anticipates first-year revenue of $250,000 to $300,000.

“I’d love to have more employees after one year in business,” he said. “I’d like to have a full-time assistant and a receptionist.”